Where the ‘stress spreads’
Drive through vaccinations and consultations over the phone are part of Bailee Riddick’s new normal as she works through the coronavirus lockdown.
As a pharmacist Riddick, 27, has been filling prescriptions, doing consultations over the phone and through a window, and giving people the flu vaccine while they sit in their cars.
Usually there are 20 people working at the New Plymouth pharmacy, but during lockdown they are working in two teams of 10, she says.
‘‘So I guess we’re not as busy that we need our full staff on, but we’re still busy.’’
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Riddick says she is working longer, 10-hour days, but works three days on and three off.
‘‘We’re still getting a rest, which is good because it’s quite stressful at times.’’
Some of the stress comes from customers not understanding how things work now, she says.
‘‘So you can’t get off the phone with your doctor, drive straight to the pharmacy and expect things to be ready.
‘‘We have the fax machine and emails constantly going. Every five minutes there’s another stack of 20 faxes. We’ve constantly got a pile of prescriptions.
‘‘By the end of the day everything is filled.’’
But people don’t always realise everyone is waiting and if they say it’s going to be 20 minutes it’s because there are other people in the queue.
‘‘Twenty minutes is not bad. The most stressful is the phone constantly ringing.
‘‘You’ve got five things on the go and the phone rings again.
‘‘You can’t not answer the phone.’’
Most people are really good, she says, but people are stressed too and stress spreads.
‘‘It’s been pretty good considering.’’
One of her biggest challenges has been giving flu vaccinations through car windows.
‘‘And allowing the elderly to not be so scared of us. Normally we would sit down and have a wee chat and it’d be in the consulting room. Now it’s like a drive-by service where they are in their cars. There have been a lot of people wanting it.’’
Legally she doesn’t have to wear personal protection equipment (PPE), because they are in close contact with people for such a short time, she says.
But they wear aprons, masks and gloves to make people feel more comfortable and in case they have a cold.
The public aren’t allowed go into the pharmacy to protect their work space. ‘‘People ring up and we can do consultations on the phone.’’
And they still do consultations at the pharmacy, but through a big window. ‘‘They can see us and we can see them, but we’re on the phone.’’
Riddick flats with a teacher and a doctor. She and the doctor have both worked through lockdown. They’ve both been well and are good ‘‘at cleaning things’’.
But Riddick hasn’t been too worried about getting sick.
At the beginning they didn’t have any PPE and they ran out of hand sanitiser.
‘‘We didn’t have much information. And it changed every day. I guess it was hard and you get told a lot of things, but you don’t have gear to do them.
‘‘We have all [the gear] now. But it’s all these things they tell you to do, but you can’t – then you worry I think.’’
Deliveries have definitely increased, because they are encouraging that, she says.
‘‘We’ll say ‘you’ve got a big script, we’ll drop it off to you so you don’t have to wait here all day’. I feel it’s been working quite well. We’re trying to run as normal as possible.’’